News Corp Australia’s Let Them Be Kids campaign to protect children from social media until they were 16 – and to hold the government to a commitment on legislation – has earned the publisher two top prizes in this year’s INMA Global Media Awards.
The campaign – which ran across News’ regional tabloids – won national categories for both ‘best public relations or community service campaign’ and ‘best use of print’ in the awards, presented in Berlin on Thursday (local time).
Saturday Courier-Mail and Sunday Mail editor Mel Pilling – who collected the award – said parents who had trusted the mastheads to tell their stories had been critical to the 18-month-long campaign’s success.
“These parents had suffered unimaginable loss and our campaign gave them a voice,” she said. “We achieved what we set out to do but, significantly, also started a global movement around online safety with dozens of countries looking to introduce similar laws.”
News’ Wall Street Journal took home the global ‘best in show’ award, heading a list of 41 first-place recipients. Its ‘Surfacing the Story: How WSJ’s ORCA unlocks the podcast universe’ was described as a powerful investigative journalism tool that turned an unsearchable podcast ecosystem into structured, analysable data, enabling reporters to track narratives, sources, and influence across thousands of hours of audio with accountability built into the system.
News Corp Australia also scored a second place and two third places, one national and one regional.
Among regional winners, Australia’s ACM/Explore was judged best in Asia/Pacific for ‘From destination site to network product’.
Other regional winners were:
Best in Africa: Media24 for ‘Saturday Night Fitness’;
Best in Europe: Bauer Media for ‘Toni OS & Eva AI’;
Best in Latin America: Clarín for ‘Mile 201: Patrolling the World’s Most Contested Maritime Frontier’;
Best in North America: The Wall Street Journal for ‘Surfacing the Story: How WSJ’s ORCA Unlocks the Podcast Universe’; and
Best in South Asia: Dainik Jagran for ‘Lights. Cities. Action’.
INMA chief executive and executive director Earl Wilkinson said it was clear from this year’s winning entries that AI has graduated from experiment to strategic operating fabric, “and the linear subscription funnel has given way to integrated audience systems focussed on lifetime value rather than acquisition alone.
“Just as importantly, our members are pairing this business sophistication with a renewed commitment to immersive, human-centric and local journalism. In a year defined by misinformation and fractured public discourse, news media organisations are proving that strategic depth and editorial purpose are not competing priorities – they reinforce each other.”
Deadline for next year’s, 2027 INMA Global Media Awards is January 29, 2027. The winners are:
Category 1: Best Brand Awareness Campaign
Regional Brands
- First Place, Fædrelandsvennen, Norway, “Behind a Story”
- Second Place, Nieuwsblad, Belgium, “The Green Playground”
- Third Place, Toronto Star, Canada, “City of Stars: A Commemorative Masterpiece for the 50th Anniversary of TIFF”
- Honourable Mention, Manorama Online, India, “Chumma MO It!”
- Honourable Mention, Rheinische Post Mediengruppe, Germany, “Düsseldorf Geht Aus: An Innovative, Cross-Channel Project That Brings Local Gastronomy to Life”
National Brands
- First Place, The Hindu, India, “The Hindu Written By Journalists”
- Second Place, Dow Jones, United States, “WSJ+ Fortune Favors The Ambitious Brand Campaign”
- Third Place, Sydney Morning Herald/The Age, Australia, “Good Food”
- Honourable Mention, Dainik Jagran, India, “The Hindi Operating System”
- Honourable Mention, Prothom Alo, Bangladesh, “HHH: Heads Held High”
Category 2: Best Public Relations or Community Service Campaign
Regional Brands
- First Place, The Philadelphia Inquirer, United States, “Philly Gives”
- Second Place, Nieuwsblad, Belgium, “The Green Playground”
- Third Place, Winnipeg Free Press, Canada, “Media Literacy and Learning Project”
- Honourable Mention, Amar Ujala, India, “Tanav Mukt Pariksha (Stress Free Exams)”
- Honourable Mention, Russmedia, Austria, “Vorarlberger Pflegeaward”
National Brands
- First Place, News Corp Australia, “Let Them Be Kids”
- Second Place, Dainik Jagran, India, “The Architects of Tomorrow”
- Third Place, Beobachter, Switzerland, “Prämienticker”
- Honourable Mention, Prothom Alo, Bangladesh, “Guiding Light: Rewriting Futures in Bangladesh’s Forgotten Regions”
- Honourable Mention, Stuff Group, New Zealand, “Swimming Campaign”
CATEGORY 3: Best Use of An Event to Build a News Brand
Regional Brands
- First Place, Media24, South Africa, “Saturday Night Fitness”
- Second Place, El Nuevo Día, Puerto Rico, “Al Son de Aquí”
- Third Place, The Hindu, India, “The Hindu: Made of Chennai”
- Honourable Mention, The Philadelphia Inquirer, United States, “Inquirer Food Fest”
- Honourable Mention, Stuff Group, New Zealand, “The Post: The Power of Proximity”
National Brands
- First Place, Dainik Jagran, India, “Lights. Cities. Action.”
- Second Place, BusinessDesk, New Zealand, “BusinessDesk CEO Index Awards: Finding Leadership Among Our Leaders”
- Third Place, Prothom Alo, Bangladesh, “NextGen Achievers: Recognizing and Inspiring the Next Generation of Leaders”
- Honourable Mention, The Wall Street Journal, United States, “WSJ Tech Live in California & Qatar, 2025”
- Honourable Mention, Die Zeit, Germany, “Zeit Verbrechen Live Tour 2025: From Headphones to Arenas — Scaling Intimacy for 25,000 Fans”
Category 4: Best Idea to Encourage Reader Engagement
Regional Brands
- First Place, Newsday, United States, “Dangerous Roads: Driving Engagement Through Multi-Department Approach to Investigation”
- Second Place, Dainik Jagran, India, “The People Without a Name”
- Third Place, Bonnier News Local and Gota Media, Sweden, “The Core Model”
- Honourable Mention, Augsburger Allgemeine, Germany, “Future Week”
- Honourable Mention, The Times of India, India, “I Am Kolkata, Amar Para”
National Brands
- First Place, Dainik Jagran, India, “Lights. Cities. Action.”
- Second Place, Blick, Switzerland, “Spin to Win: Leveraging Loss Aversion and Gamification to Triple User Registration Rates”
- Third Place, HT Digital, India, “Intelligent Notification System with Reinforcement Learning”
- Honourable Mention, Politiken, Denmark, “Voter Poster Generator”
- Honourable Mention, Die Zeit, Germany, “Plan D”
Category 5: Best Initiative to Bolster Next-Generation Readership
Regional Brands
- First Place, NTM, Sweden, “Winning the Young Ones”
- Second Place, Bergens Tidende, Norway, “The People’s Prejudices: Turning Audience Assumptions into Political Journalism”
- Third Place, Fædrelandsvennen, Norway, “FVN Young — Breaking the Feed”
- Honourable Mention, Augsburger Allgemeine/augsburg.tv, Germany, “Rocketeer Kids Reporter”
- Honourable Mention, Funke Mediengruppe, Germany, “Funke Future Audiences Lab”
National Brands
- First Place, Aftenposten, Norway, “Aftenposten Education — From Zero to 35% Market Penetration in Five Months”
- Second Place, South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, “Young Post Club”
- Third Place, The Daily Star, Bangladesh, “National Newspaper Olympiad: Turning Reading Into a National Youth Movement”
- Honourable Mention, Beobachter, Switzerland, “From Taboo to Triumph: Beobachter’s Social-First Strategy Secures Next-Generation Readership”
- Honourable Mention, Nexo Jornal, Brazil, “Nexo no Enem 2025”
Category 6: Best Use of Video
Regional Brands
- First Place, A Gazeta, Brazil, “Morro do Macaco Tragedy”
- Second Place, The New Zealand Herald, New Zealand, “Herald NOW — Moving From a Newspaper to a TV Channel”
- Third Place, San Antonio Express-News, United States, “In a Minute”
- Honourable Mention, GZH/Grupo RBS, Brazil, “GZH YouTube Streaming: Building a Hyperlocal Video-First News Channel in Southern Brazil”
- Honourable Mention, Onmanorama, India, “How Many of You Know?”
National Brands
- First Place, Clarín, Argentina, “Mile 201: Patrolling the World’s Most Contested Maritime Frontier”
- Second Place, The Quint, India, “Why Indian Cities Aren’t Walkable”
- Third Place, The Straits Times, Singapore, “Vaping: The Invisible Crisis”
- Honourable Mention, The Times of India, India, “The Keeladi Story”
- Honourable Mention, VG, Norway, “Reimagining Video for Premium Journalism”
Category 7: Best Use of Audio
Regional Brands
- First Place, Dagblad van het Noorden, Netherlands, “De Ware Jacob: How a Creative Small Team Created a Hit Podcast”
- Second Place, Manorama Online, India, “MO Podcast: Audio Journalism Initiative”
- Third Place, Nordwest Zeitung, Germany, “The Local Botcast: AI-Powered, Fully Automated Botcast Workflow, Built for Regional Scalability”
- Honourable Mention, Bergens Tidende, Norway, “The Music Scene That Shocked the World: Beyond the Myth of Norwegian Black Metal”
- Honourable Mention, Russmedia, Austria, “VOL.AT Playlist Feature”
National Brands
- First Place, Der Standard, Austria, “Inside Austria: The Power of Far-Right Fraternities”
- Second Place, News Corp Australia, “Dear Rachelle”
- Third Place, Aller Media, Denmark, “HULiGENNEM”
- Honourable Mention, O Globo, Brazil, “Caso Zero: Breaking 25 years of Silence in Brazil’s Most Controversial Medical Case”
- Honourable Mention, Irish Independent, Ireland, “Just Between Us”
Category 8: Best Use of Print
Regional Brands
- First Place, The Times of India, India, “Thirukkural With The Times”
- Second Place, Dainik Jagran, India, “The People Without a Name”
- Third Place, Toronto Star, Canada, “City of Stars: A Commemorative Masterpiece for the 50th Anniversary of TIFF”
- Honourable Mention, Hallandsposten, Sweden, “Reusing Print. Creating Something New”
- Honourable Mention, The Philadelphia Inquirer, United States, “Sunday Specials”
National Brands
- First Place, News Corp Australia, “Let Them Be Kids”
- Second Place, Sydney Morning Herald/The Age, Australia, “Good Food”
- Third Place, O Globo, Brazil, “The Centennial Edition: Brazil’s Largest Print Newspaper”
- Honourable Mention, South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, “From Ashes, Strength”
- Honourable Mention, The Straits Times, Singapore, “Inside the Confusing World of Women’s Clothing Sizes”
Category 9: Best Use of Social Media
Regional Brands
- First Place, GZH/Grupo RBS, Brazil, “Journalists as Creators: A Social Video Growth Strategy”
- Second Place, Newsday, United States, “How Newsroom Personalities and Video Strategy Helped Newsday’s Facebook Following Increase by 194%”
- Third Place, The Times of India, India, “I am Kolkata, Amar Para”
- Honourable Mention, Anandabazar.com, India, “Maruti Suzuki Arena Pujor First Look”
- Honourable Mention, Reach, United Kingdom, “Why Substack is a Social Media — and How We Proved It”
National Brands
- First Place, The Financial Times, United Kingdom, “A Taste of Appetites: Engaging New Audiences through Creator-Led Social Media”
- Second Place, VG, Norway, “VG Promotes Quality Journalism Without Influencers”
- Third Place, El Observador, Uruguay, “How to Battle the Algorithm with a Starfish”
- Honourable Mention, BBC News/Collective Newsroom, India, “Optimised Utilisation of Social Media Storytelling by BBC Hindi”
- Honourable Mention, VD News, Italy, “VD News: Engaging Italy’s Youth Through Social-First Storytelling”
Category 10: Best Newsletter
Regional Brands
- First Place, The Edinburgh Minute, United Kingdom, “The Edinburgh Minute”
- Second Place, Newsday, United States, “Fostering Conversations Through a Newsletter Dedicated to the Dangers of Long Island Roads”
- Third Place, Tiroler Tageszeitung, Austria, “WhatsApp Channel Unterhaus”
- Honourable Mention, Aschendorff Medien, Germany, “Ortsgespräch Newsletter”
- Honourable Mention, The Boston Globe, United States, “Starting Point Newsletter”
National Brands
- First Place, The Guardian, United Kingdom, “Saturday Edition for The Guardian”
- Second Place, De Telegraaf, Netherlands, “Don’t Just Get the News. Get Me.”
- Third Place, The Kyiv Independent, Ukraine, “The Kyiv Independent Ukraine Weekly Newsletter”
- Honourable Mention, The Economist, United Kingdom, “The Economist Insider Newsletter”
- Honourable Mention, Svenska Dagbladet, Sweden, “The Week With SvD”
Category 11: Best New Digital Product
Regional Brands
- First Place, Bergens Tidende, Norway, “How Bergens Tidende Built the World’s Simplest Election Guide”
- Second Place, Stavanger Aftenblad, Norway, “RUN: Covering Every Runner”
- Third Place, Funke Mediengruppe, Germany, “IMTEST/Vertical Hub: from Print Niche to Digital Powerhouse”
- Honourable Mention, The Minnesota Star Tribune, United States, “Strib Varsity”
- Honourable Mention, Münchner Merkur, Germany, “News Connect: Same journalism. New Interface. AI Native”
National Brands
- First Place, Bauer Media, Germany, “Toni OS & Eva AI”
- Second Place, Clarín, Argentina, “Clarín 80: Reimagining a News Archive as a Living Digital Product”
- Third Place, The New Yorker, United States, “The New Yorker’s Shuffalo”
- Honourable Mention, Bloomberg Media, United States, “For You: Reimagining Personalization to Break the Algorithmic News Bubble”
- Honourable Mention, The Guardian, United Kingdom, “Guardian Secure Messaging”
Category 12: Best Product Iteration
Regional Brands
- First Place, ACM/Explore, Australia, “From Destination Site to Network Product: How Explore Travel Scaled Across 60+ Mastheads”
- Second Place, Stampen Media, Sweden, “The Edition Reborn”
- Third Place, Amedia, Norway, “Scaling Video Across Amedia”
- Honourable Mention, Funke Mediengruppe, Germany, “Audience First”
- Honourable Mention, Manorama Online, India, “Manorama Online News App”
National Brands
- First Place, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Germany, “Reinventing Der Tag — How F.A.Z. Turned a Freemium News Product Into a Premium News Experience”
- Second Place, CNA, Mediacorp, Singapore, “CNA App Revamp”
- Third Place, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany, “From EU Bot to Germany Election Assistant: Iterating AI Election Tools”
- Honourable Mention, Bloomberg Media, United States, “Bloomberg Search — From Scroll to Solution: Search That Gets You There”
- Honourable Mention, Kauppalehti, Finland, “Kauppalehti Stock Market Service”
Category 13: Best Use of Generative AI
Regional Brands
- First Place, Münchner Merkur, Germany, “The.Lab Agent Space: Human-in-the-Loop in AI-Augmented Storytelling”
- Second Place, Stuff Group, New Zealand, “Who Owns Christchurch”
- Third Place, OVB Media, Germany, “Breaking the Language Barrier at the Speed of the Tour de France”
- Honourable Mention, Hearst Newspapers, United States, “How Hearst Newspapers Uses Generative AI to Expand Civic Coverage”
- Honourable Mention, Stampen Media, Sweden, “When Generative AI Became Everyone’s Job”
National Brands
- First Place, The Wall Street Journal, United States, “Surfacing the Story: How WSJ’s ORCA Unlocks the Podcast Universe”
- Second Place, The Telegraph, United Kingdom, “Segment-Aware Analytics”
- Third Place, La Nación, Argentina, “From Experimentation to Infrastructure: Generative AI at La Nación”
- Honourable Mention, Mediafin, Belgium, “From Brief to Booked in Minutes: TrustIQ’s Responsible GenAI for Data-Driven Campaign Proposals”
- Honourable Mention, The Nikkei Online Edition, Japan, “Ask! Nikkei: A Traceable AI Chatbot Driving Subscriber Engagement”
Category 14: Best Revenue Diversification Strategy
Regional Brands
- First Place, Funke Mediengruppe, Germany, “IMTEST/Vertical Hub: from Print Niche to Digital Powerhouse”
- Second Place, NZME, New Zealand, “Diversifying Solutions to Become Growth Partners”
- Third Place, News Corp Australia, “Newscorp Price Harmonisation Program”
- Honourable Mention, Le Devoir, Canada, “New Business Stream at Le Devoir”
- Honourable Mention, The Times of India Metro Supplements, India, “Bombay Times Lounge”
National Brands
- First Place, Bild, Germany, “Bild Kaufberater”
- Second Place, Dainik Jagran, India, “Lights. Cities. Action.”
- Third Place, The Washington Post, United States, “Unlocking Growth with Flexible Access: Giving Customers More Ways to Pay for Journalism”
- Honourable Mention, Australian Financial Review, Australia, “Financial Review for Business”
- Honourable Mention, PolitiFact, United States, “Everyone Needs a Fact-Checker: PolitiFact’s Post-Meta Comeback”
Category 15: Best Initiative to Grow Subscriptions
Regional Brands
- First Place, Les Coops de l’information, Canada, “Pay What You Can Promotion”
- Second Place, Stavanger Aftenblad, Norway, “Turning Runners Into Subscribers”
- Third Place, Västerbottens-Kuriren (VK), Sweden, “Live for Locals: When You Don’t Have the Money to Buy the Game, You Change How the Game is Played”
- Honourable Mention, Funke Mediengruppe, Germany, “Testing Monthly Pricing to Weekly Rates”
- Honourable Mention, Hearst Newspapers, United States, “Next Best Action: How Hearst Newspapers Reimagined Subscription Growth”
National Brands
- First Place, Politiken, Denmark, “The Task Force”
- Second Place, VG, Norway, “730% Above Median: How One VG+ Journalist Scaled Subscription Journalism with AI — In One Day”
- Third Place, Der Spiegel, Germany, “Dynamic Pricing & Engagement Score: Personalizing the Subscription Journey”
- Honourable Mention, The Kyiv Independent, Ukraine, “The Kyiv Independent Reader Revenue Growth Strategy”
- Honourable Mention, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Switzerland, “More Than an App: How NZZ Built a Scalable Revenue Engine on Mobile”
Category 16: Best Initiative to Engage and Retain Subscribers
Regional Brands (judges decided to award two entries as first-place winners in this category)
- First Place, Göteborgs-Posten, Sweden, “Expanding Horizons to Increase Retention — From One Coastal City to Another”
- First Place, Västerbottens-Kuriren (VK), Sweden, “Live for Locals: When You Don’t Have the Money to Buy the Game, You Change How the Game is Played”
- Third Place, Rheinische Post Mediengruppe, Germany, “RP DigitalFit Academy: Initiative for Sustainable Digital Competence over 60”
- Honourable Mention, Funke Mediengruppe, Germany, “Loyalty Score”
- Honourable Mention, The Philadelphia Inquirer, United States, “Retaining Philadelphia Inquirer Subscribers Through Effective Engagement at High-Intent Cancellation Moments”
National Brands
- First Place, VG, Norway, “Reimagining Video for Premium Journalism”
- Second Place, Mediahuis, Belgium, “Mediahuis and RouteYou — a Strategic Win-Win”
- Third Place, The Guardian, United Kingdom, “Churn Risk Programme: Preventing Supporter Churn”
- Honourable Mention, Condé Nast, United States, “Churn Deflection”
- Honourable Mention, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Germany, “User Needs at SZ”
Category 17: Best Idea to Grow Advertising Sales or Revenue
Regional Brands
- First Place, Nordwest Mediengruppe, Germany, “Unlocking Regional Potential: The HERO Transformation Journey”
- Second Place, Funke Mediengruppe, Germany, “IMTEST/Vertical Hub: from Print Niche to Digital Powerhouse”
- Third Place, The Philadelphia Inquirer, United States, “Philly First + Changemaker Spotlight”
- Honourable Mention, News24, South Africa, “Lula and News24 Partnership”
- Honourable Mention, Newsday, United States, “Together Long Island: Brand360 Cause Marketing Initiative”
National Brands
- First Place, Irish Independent, Ireland, “In-Market: A First-Party Intent Strategy Built to Drive Real Business Outcomes”
- Second Place, Ozone, United Kingdom, “Premium World from Ozone”
- Third Place, News Corp Australia, “Back Australia”
- Honourable Mention, DPG Media, Netherlands/Belgium, “Ad Manager by DPG Media, a Local Alternative to Big Tech”
- Honourable Mention, Stuff Group, New Zealand, “HOW — Radio Show”
Category 18: Best Client Advertising Campaign
Regional Brands
- First Place, Russmedia, Austria, “Story Premium — The Bodylight Campaign as Proof of Effective Client Advertising”
- Second Place, NTM, Sweden, “Welcome to Gotland: When Stories Become Bookings”
- Third Place, GZH/Grupo RBS, Brazil, “Porto Alegre Marathon”
- Honourable Mention, ABP, India, “Trends Saj Parbon”
- Honourable Mention, New Zealand Media & Entertainment (NZME), New Zealand, “TAB NZ | Owning the Moment with NZME and The ACC”
National Brands
- First Place, SPH Content Lab, Singapore, “SG60 Past, Present, Future”
- Second Place, The Irish Times Group, Ireland, “The Irish Times and Ireland’s Greenest Places: Balancing Purpose and Commercial Partnership”
- Third Place, Der Standard, Austria, “KlimaTicket — One for All”
- Honourable Mention, Amedia Innholdsbyrå, Norway, “Norwegian Championship in Recycling — When Competition Becomes Learning”
- Honourable Mention, HT Media Labs, India, “Best Client Advertising Campaign by Slurrp for USHA”
Category 19: Best Innovation in Newsroom Transformation
Regional Brands
- First Place, The New Zealand Herald, New Zealand, “The NZ Herald’s Reinvented News Model: Our Newsroom Transformation”
- Second Place, Amedia, Norway, “Scaling Video Across Amedia”
- Third Place, Houston Chronicle, United States, “Houston Chronicle Property Tax Guide: Converting Users by Saving Them Money”
- Honourable Mention, Association of Independent Regional Press Publishers, Ukraine, “When Local Journalism Becomes Infrastructure: Building a Newsroom Operating System for Anti-Corruption Investigations During Wartime”
- Honourable Mention, Göteborgs-Posten, Sweden, “The Sign”
National Brands
- First Place, Maldita.es, Spain, “La Buloteca: Transforming Newsroom Operations Through Collaborative Verification and Data-Driven Workflows”
- Second Place, Svenska Dagbladet, Sweden, “How Svenska Dagbladet Reinvented Its Newsroom”
- Third Place, United Daily News Group, Taiwan, “Publish X, Institutionalising Editorial Judgment”
- Honourable Mention, Amedia, Norway, “Trusting the Machine: How Amedia’s Front Editors Let Algorithms Rule — and Loved It”
- Honourable Mention, The Business Times, Singapore, “Leveraging Data to Drive a 20% YoY Increase in Views”
Category 20: Best Use of Visual Journalism and Storytelling Tools
Regional Brands
- First Place, Le Devoir, Canada, “Are Songs Getting Shorter These Days?”
- Second Place, A Gazeta, Brazil, “River of Mud and Struggle”
- Third Place, Oxpeckers Center for Investigative Environmental Journalism, South Africa, “The Oxpeckers Geojournalism Initiative: Powering Investigative Transparency in Resource Transition and Global Environmental Crime”
- Honourable Mention, Diario Sur/Agencia Colpisa (Vocento), Spain, “The Difficult Task of Buying a House, Even If You Win El Gordo”
- Honourable Mention, Göteborgs-Posten, Sweden, “Chats of Power”
National Brands
- First Place, South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, “Tai Po inferno: Hong Kong’s Deadliest Fire in Decades”
- Second Place, Politiken, Denmark, “The Iterative Storytelling Model”
- Third Place, Reuters, Singapore, “The Lives Lost in Gaza”
- Honourable Mention, La Nación, Argentina, “How a Weapons Factory Was Blown Up in Argentina”
- Honourable Mention, The Straits Times, Singapore, “Singapore’s Landscape is Constantly Evolving. Here Are Some Changes to Come”
Pictured: News Brisbane’s Mel Pilling with INMA president Gert Ysebaert at the Global Media at the Tipi am Kanzleramt in Berlin in Berlin.